Low Temperature Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence

In this short letter, we describe the effects of low temperature on the Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF) phenomenon. Fluorophores close to Silver Island Films (SiFs) show on average two- to ten-fold enhancements in their fluorescence signatures at room temperature. However, at 77 K, we have observed that MEF is even more pronounced as compared to an identical glass control sample. We also demonstrate that the further enhancements in MEF occur at low temperature over a range of visible wavelengths for different fluorophores, for both SiFs and 20 nm surface deposited gold colloids.     

Thermal Entanglement of XXZ Heisenberg Chain under Rectangle Magnetic Field

We study thermal entanglement of XXZ Heisenberg chain under rectangle magnetic field. Under this magnetic field B, the region of thermal entanglement in terms of B and temperature T can be extended. Moreover, one can improve threshold temperature, where entanglement vanish, just by increasing the strength of magnetic field. This effect is similar to that of the anisotropic coupling of spin in XY plane but provide us a realizable method to improve threshold temperature.     

On the genericity of spacetime singularities

We consider here the genericity aspects of spacetime singularities that occur in cosmology and in gravitational collapse. The singularity theorems (that predict the occurrence of singularities in general relativity) allow the singularities of gravitational collapse to be either visible to external observers or covered by an event horizon of gravity. It is shown that the visible singularities that develop as final states of spherical collapse are generic. Some consequences of this fact are discussed.      

High-affinity integration of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles with chemically modified silk fibroin

Hydroxyapatite (HA)-based nanocomposites were prepared by a co-precipitation method with silk fibroin (SF) serving as organic matrix. Silk fibroin was chemically modified with an alkali solution or an enzyme attempting to improve the interface between the mineral and the organic matrix. The influences of the alkali and enzyme pretreatments on microstructure and physicochemical properties of HA–SF composite were examined and compared. The results reveal that both the two kinds of pretreatments facilitate the formation of highly ordered three-dimensional porous network throughout the composites, increase the microhardness of the composite, and promote the preferential growth of HA crystallites along c-axis. Among all the as-prepared samples, the composite containing the enzyme pretreated SF shows desirable hierarchical microstructure with higher degree of organization and more uniform pore size distribution. Due to the enzyme pretreatment, HA crystallites undergo obvious changes in morphology from rod-like to␣whisker-like and in crystal growth towards more apparent epitaxy along c-axis. The alkali pretreatment induces the stronger chemical interactions between HA and SF and thus to strengthen the inorganic–organic interfacial adhesion. The newly developed HA–SF composites are expected to be attractive biomedical materials for bone repair and remodeling.     

Dynamics of quark-gluon plasma from field correlators

It is argued that strong dynamics in the quark-gluon plasma and bound states of quarks and gluons is mostly due to nonperturbative effects described by field correlators. The emphasis in the paper is made on two explicit calculations of these effects from first principles—one analytic using gluelump Green’s functions and another using independent lattice data on correlators. The resulting hadron spectra are investigated in the range T _c ≤ T < 2T _c . The spectra of charmonia, bottomonia, light s mesons, glueballs, and quark-gluon states calculated numerically are in general agreement with lattice MEM data. The possible role of these bound states in the thermodynamics of quark—gluon plasma is discussed. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Power-Law Inflation in Spacetimes Without Symmetry

We consider models of accelerated cosmological expansion described by the Einstein equations coupled to a nonlinear scalar field with a suitable exponential potential. We show that homogeneous and isotropic solutions are stable under small nonlinear perturbations without any symmetry assumptions. Our proof is based on results on the nonlinear stability of de Sitter spacetime and Kaluza-Klein reduction techniques.     

On the Zero-Energy-Limit Solution for the Modified Gross–Pitaevskii Equation

The modified Gross–Pitaevskii equation was derived and solved to obtain the 1D solution in the zero-energy limit. This stationary solution could account for the dominated contributions due to the kinetic effect as well as the chemical potential in inhomogeneous Bose gases.     

Constructing Space for Science at the Royal Institution of Great Britain

Those who have worked in the Royal Institution of Great Britain have, since its foundation in 1799, made significant contributions to scientific knowledge, to its practical application, and to its communication to a wide variety of audiences. Such work cannot be carried out in an architectural vacuum, and in this paper we examine how the buildings of the Royal Institution, 20 and 21 Albemarle Street in central London, have shaped the work undertaken within its walls and how, on a number of occasions, the buildings have been reconfigured to take account of the evolving needs of scientific research and communication. This paper is based on the Conservation Plan of the Royal Institution that we wrote during 2003. The Conservation Plan did not examine the land owned by the Royal Institution to the north (i.e., 22 and 23 Albemarle Street; for this area see Richard Garnier, “Grafton Street, Mayfair,” Georgian Group Journal 13 (2003), 210–272), but it did discuss 18 and 19 Albemarle Street. In this paper we concentrate on the core Royal Institution buildings at 20 and 21 Albemarle Street. Other studies of the relationship of architecture,space, and science include Crosbie Smith and Jon Agar, ed., Making Space for Science: Territorial Themes in the Shaping of Knowledge (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997); Peter Galison and Emily Thompson, ed., The Architecture of Science (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999); and Sophie Forgan,“The architecture of science and the idea of a university,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 20 (1989), 405–434. Frank A.J.L. James is Professor of the History of Science at the Royal Institution; he has written widely on the history of nineteenth-century science in its social and cultural contexts and is editor of the Correspondence of Michael Faraday. He is President of the British Society for the History of Science. Anthony Peers is an Associate of Rodney Melville and Partners where he works in the field of building conservation as an architectural historian. He is a Council member of the Ancient Monument Society.     

Study of the mobility,surface area,and sintering behavior of agglomerates in the transition regime by tandem differential mobility analysis

The surface area of nanosized agglomerates is of great importance as the reactivity and health effects of such particles are highly dependent on surface area. Changes in surface area through sintering during nanoparticle synthesis processes are also of interest for precision control of synthesised particles. Unfortunately, information on particle surface area and surface area dynamics is not readily obtainable through traditional particle mobility sizing techniques. In this study, we have experimentally determined the mobility diameter of transition regime agglomerates with 3, 4, and 5 primary particles. Agglomerates were produced by spray drying well-characterised polystyrene latex particles with diameters of 55, 67, 76, and 99 nm. Tandem differential mobility analysis was used to determine agglomerate mobility diameter by selecting monodisperse agglomerates with the same number of primary particles in the first DMA, and subsequently completely sintering the agglomerates in a furnace aerosol reactor. The size distribution of the completely sintered particles was measured by an SMPS system, which allowed for the determination of the number of primary particles in the agglomerates. A simple power law regression was used to express mobility diameter as a function of primary particle size and the number of primary particles, and had an excellent correlation (R² = 0.9971) with the experimental data. A scaling exponent was determined from the experimental data to relate measured mobility diameter to surface area for agglomerates. Using this relationship, the sintering characteristics of agglomerates were also examined for varying furnace temperatures and residence times. The sintering data agreed well with the geometric sintering model (GSM) model proposed by Cho & Biswas (2006a) as well as with the model proposed Koch & Friedlander (1990) for sintering by viscous flow.     

Covalent functionalization of multi-walled carbon nanotubes by lipase

Lipase from Candida rugosa was covalently anchored onto acid-treated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) through a self-catalytic mechanism. A variety of characterization techniques including FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, and XPS were employed to demonstrate the formation of the ester linkage between lipase and MWNTs. The MWNTs-lipase biocomposites showed significantly increased solubility in some common-used organic solvents, such as THF, DMF and chloroform. This study may offer a novel and facile route for covalent modification of carbon nanotubes, and expand the potential utilization of both lipases and MWNTs in the fields of biocatalyst and biosensor.